"When it comes to MSI's card specifically, it's in decent standings. The overclock is admittedly marginal, but there's a decent amount of extra headroom for more, especially on the memory chips, indeed it's something of a shame MSI hasn't overclocked the memory by default. Although a little larger than some, the cooler is well built and runs cool and quiet, even when the card is overclocked and under load.

"I am not particularly feeling Sapphire’s modifications to the AMD R9 280X. In effect our testing shows that the cooling solution is very loud at any form of medium to high intensity load (read: gaming). The Sapphire Vapor-X R9 280X reminds me of the HD 6990 reference cooler which reached similarly high noise levels of 65-70 dBA and had a reputation for being too noisy. "

"Since this is an board partner focused card without a reference version, we’re sure to see some interesting designs with additional performance on tap through enhanced clock speeds and better cooling solutions. Take the XFX card we looked at in this review as an example: it may not be pre-overclocked but the heatsink provided excellent temperature results and whisper quiet acoustics. Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to overly impressive overclocking results but that’s due to our lack of a proper voltage-tuning utility and less time with the card than we would have liked. "

"ASUS is only commanding a $10 price premium on the ASUS R9 280X DC2T. For that extra $10 you get a slight core clock frequency boost, a more impressive memory clock boost, and custom high-end components. ASUS has outfitted this video card with its DIGI+ VRMs for cleaner voltage, more voltage, and more power delivery. The 8x2 phase setup is superior to the reference 6x2 phase configuration on R9 280X. The lifespan and efficiency of the R9 280X is improved on the ASUS version. The fan is customized and does deliver on its promises. We have the option to raise voltage to 1.4v on this card, well over the default of 1.2v, giving us immense freedom to overclock, hopefully."

"The Sapphire Toxic Edition is the fastest R9 280X we have tested since launch, with the core clocked at 1,150mhz and the GDDR5 memory at 1,600mhz (6.4 Gbps effective). Thanks to the enhanced power delivery, we managed to squeeze almost 1,300mhz from the core and 1,762mhz from the GDDR5 memory (7.05 Gbps effective). Again, this is the highest manually tuned clock speed from any R9 280X this week. Some credit has to go to the capabilities of the Tri-X cooler which features three high grade aerofoil fans and gargantuan 10mm heat pipes.
We would go as far to say that the new Tri-X cooler is the best AMD cooling solution on the market. Not only did it outperform the triple slot cooler on the Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum, but it did so by a staggering 10c under load. "

"While we aren’t questioning the performance of the Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum, we are surprised to see a triple slot cooler fitted to a R9 280X, even if it is overclocked. Many users who want to run high end Crossfire find it difficult to make room for 6 slots … just for a simple 2 way Crossfire configuration."

"Sufficient cooling, extreme performance, silent and tweakable are the key-words here. And hey it comes factory clocked faster then reference and it is a good chunk cheaper than a GTX 780 Ti as well as you get more graphics memory (4GB). NICE ! Having that much raw unadulterated horsepower under the hood will bring options to the table. You play your games at 2560x1440 and flick on every quality setting that you can think of. "

"AMD may still claim it is fine to run at 95c all the time but on launch day KitGuru argued the point with our own indepth analysis. We know PR spin when we hear it, and we make sure you guys always know our honest feelings. Luckily for us all, Sapphire agreed with Kitguru and they have dropped load temperatures from 95c to 68c – a staggering 27c."

Tweaking results aside, the MSI Radeon R9-290X Gaming OC is a serious product that has all variables right. Proper cooling temperatures, normal noise levels, great looks, a factory overclock and obviously the raw sheer unadulterated gaming performance you need to play the very latest games at high resolutions with stringent image quality settings. next to that, we like the total of 4 GB graphics memory as well. MSI Radeon R9-290X Gaming OC is the kind of productI'd use in my gaming PC with a smile, knowing it's all good, silent and high performing.

"While Sapphire’s mild factory overclock doesn’t significantly change the performance equation it does reinforce the 290’s strong points. For $450 the card will consistently outperform the GTX 780 or outright tie the 290X in quiet mode, offering equal-to-better performance than those $500+ cards without the noise drawback that came with the reference 290, making it an even more practical replacement for those cards."

1.3

Mantle

Release ETA - "January"

"Mantle is a low-level API specification developed by AMD as an alternative to Direct3D and OpenGL, primarily for use on the PC platform. Currently the only implementation is for graphics processing units with AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture, although there is speculation other GPU vendors such as NVidia and Intel might be able to implement it in future. Mantle was created to allow games and applications to utilize the GPU more efficiently, and have much faster draw calls, and makes game development much easier by nearly eliminating hardware abstraction."

"Mantle is vitally important for a game like Star Citizen, which is being designed with the need for massive GPU horsepower"
"AMD's Mantle will allow us to extract more performance from an AMD Radeon GPU than any other graphics API"

- Christ Roberts.

Eidos-Montréal (Thief)

"Mantle lets you use AMD Radeon GPUs the way they are meant to be used, unlocking many new opportunities and increased CPU and GPU performance. Because of this, Mantle is one of the most important changes to PC graphics in many years."

- David Anfossi

Oxide Games(Nitrous engine)

"AMD's Mantle technology lets us get more out of the hardware than any other solution available. Adding Mantle support to our multi-platform, 64-bit Nitrous engine realizes significant gains in performance on Mantle-enabled hardware without adding enormous development overhead."

Only If your system is supported and the game in question is listed in the mantle games section above.
Scenario, you have a GTX 780 & 8350 then you will not be able to use mantle as the API is only for GCN cards.
Supported systems are listed here:http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...r9-series.aspx

Why would they counter a 550-600 dollar graphics card with one that costs twice as much? nVidia is going to have to reduce the price on the 780 if the benchmarks are to be believed.

Definitely.

There's also the scary possibility that the new AMD card is simply factory overclocked at insane levels (like their latest CPU offering FX-9590) and not a real big evolutionary step. It has notably higher power consumption than 7970 while Nvidia has been steadily going down in power draw.

Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
Trolling should be.

There's also the scary possibility that the new AMD card is simply factory overclocked at insane levels (like their latest CPU offering FX-9590) and not a real big evolutionary step. It has notably higher power consumption than 7970 while Nvidia has been steadily going down in power draw.

That wont be the case, the new cards are different architecture meanwhile the power consumption should be very close to the 780 at quite a higher performance. If the benchmarks holds up I will be very surprised though, looks very good.

Found this on anandtech.
30W higher than 780 and 15W less than a Titan, Definitely will use alot of power with overclocking, Low clocks on Memory with the wider membus are the reason of this acceptable TDP.

Don't forget that AMD's current generation were out 6+ months before NVIDIA's offerings. I'll admit, if the rumors are to be believed regarding price and benchmarks, then this card is set to be the go-to choice until NVIDIA's next offerings in Q1 2014. Even if they only have 3-4 months of competing with current cards (on performance, but at half the price, it's double the performance per $), that's still one hell of an advantage.

Even then, we don't know how the midrange battle will be fought with regards to GTX7's vs R9's. Will AMD's new midrange offerings be equivalent to a 760? Or will they take a step up and be just behind a 780? How will they fare against GTX8's?

Another point, if history is repeated, then AMD will still hold the crown for bitmining, at least against NVIDIA (though not against ASIC - 28NM chips pulling ~1.4GH/s each are expected in the next few months, up from ~600MH/s on previous gen, and there's usually 8+ chips in a single device). Of course, that's a professional market now, and not something you can realistically get into without some serious investment.

Regardless of all this, I've already set my heart on the top card AMD will be pushing out this generation. Planning upgrades right now is fantastic as I've got so much new hardware I could choose from - 10 and 12 core S2011's, 20 core Xeon's on Xeon S2011, the 4770K on S1150, R9's, 32GB kits of Dominator Platinum,1 1TB SSD's, etc. Sure, the Xeon's are ~£2000 each, but those are merely options that I have available (even if it'd take me months of saving to afford just 1). All that I have my heart set on right now is an R9. It'll be a month before I can afford it, but that should allow supply to even out a little. More to the point, with the chance that there'll be a free voucher for new games such as BF4, that's just another reason for me to switch sides. It might only save me £30-40, but that's money that I don't have to spend on buying the game. It's no big deal if it isn't included, but I figure that they'll still be running the promo with the new cards and with new games.

Final point - if AMD can convince me, which they have, to switch from NVIDIA after 8 years, then they've done a good job. It's not even official yet, but I'm already convinced. Last AMD card I have was from the 3000 series (when it was still ATI IIRC), and it had driver bugs with antialiasing (Transparency AA caused textures with no model of their own [i.e. sprites] to go invisible - such as the trees in Terokkar). I understand now that was a long time ago, but since then, NVIDIA's offerings have been more appealing. The R9's are the first series that have given me a reason to switch. Other factors are in play of course, but the price and performance are the killers.

Perhaps more importantly, it looks like they've improved on the other R9 cards (such as the R9 270X, which is the 7870 successor) which means that those cards will drop in price considerably. The rumours are that the R9-290X is going to come in at around $600 for the reference card, with prices going up for the non-reference cards.

More to the point, with the chance that there'll be a free voucher for new games such as BF4, that's just another reason for me to switch sides. It might only save me £30-40, but that's money that I don't have to spend on buying the game. It's no big deal if it isn't included, but I figure that they'll still be running the promo with the new cards and with new games.

AMD's Never Settle bundle is a very good value addition; they're continually adding games to the programme and if you can get a game you were going to buy anyway, you might as well get it "for free".

The next most recent game is Tomb Raider which is over 6 months old and also isn't an AAA game.

It is a AAA game, and if you have a high end AMD card it is the most graphical impressive game of all time. It totally blew me away how great the graphics are. Tress FX hair makes all other games characters look shitty.

The argument against it is they have it on sale on Steam for $12.50 every other weekend. Which is what most of these deal games are now. BF4 would be the only game to hold its price.

"Gamer" is not a bad word. I identify as a gamer. When calling out those who persecute and harass, the word you're looking for is "asshole." @_DonAdams

When you see someone in a thread making the same canned responses over and over, click their name, click view forum posts, and see if they are a troll. Then don't feed them.